Do the youths know social media savagery will not win 2019 election?

BY TOBI IDOWU

President Buhari must have watched the throng of firebrand Nigerian youths on the internet, especially the virile ‘savaged’ social media residents, with some disdainful shrugs for some time before he decided to check their ranks with his ‘lazy’ salvo which ironically has been working wonders for him.

While he lost his immaculately incorruptible mystique long ago, his miserly engagement with Nigerians has managed to make of him a riddle that confounds and riles at the same. Often via his beloved foreign trips and besotted foreign media, the President would fire his verbal salvos which often would grate nerves and irritate the sore of his targets as the youths found out with the lazy assault. There are however some stark realities the president seems to have full confidence in that the ‘too-know’ Nigerian youths on social media have perhaps deliberately failed to grasp.

President Buhari must have believed his political destiny does not lie in the hands of the youths even when Nigerian demographics indicate the youths are some 60 percent of Nigerians. Or perhaps the president has managed to divide the youths into the social media youths and the largely illiterate, but ironically politically participatory youths; for while the social media Nigerian youths largely threaten with fire and fury, the president handlers continue to display to whoever cares the bee-clustered-like images of Buhari’s supporters wherever he has been to. The president surely gets his division right.

Now whether anyone continues to believe the truth of the crowds that follow the President about, it’s important it sinks in in time that majority of those that’d vote in 2019 would be drawn from the crowds we see in the images bandied about by the Presidency than the often faceless but very oppionated social media soldiers.

A stat to chew on: it is said that 73, 944, 312 Nigerians have registered for their Permanent Voter Cards; however, worryingly, not half of those incredible figures have collected their cards. This is not the news! Now a quick check at the collection centres would perhaps crystallise the indifference of the political class, and especially the President to the clamourous angsts of the youths on social media. Majority of those who would be found collecting their cards at those centres would be seen to be the so called illiterate Nigerians drawn from the markets, farms and, more importantly from the illiterate, but highly politically participatory youths. Educated Nigerian youths are ensconced in the comfort of the social media hauling savage responses to the indifferent President and other leaders, but finding it too much of a task to ‘queue for hours’ to get their PVCs.

Furthermore, the dynamics of the 2019 election as they are shaping up are conspiring to favour the incumbent president. More than ever, the opposition parties are in disarray. The Peoples Democratic Party watches in lame agreement as the incumbent party continues to barter its fragile reputation. Perhaps PDP still is locked in shock of its defeat at the centre more than three years having boasted it would be in power for 50 years at least. Moreover, many a Nigerian by now should have started to take the Third Force less seriously as its noise rather now appears some kind of distractive ploy designed to work for the reelection bid of the President. Considering its provenance, the Third Force was a tall farce from the outset. How about the Sowere and other relatively young outsiders in the 2019 race?

The reality of the 2019 election is that 2019 may have been too sudden for them. And more so their electoral promises and campaigns more often than not are pitched to the tune of social media Nigerian youths who would laud their mastery of language and verbal punchlines but would not be around to support them via voting when the time comes. In fact, how many market women or men saw the smackdown Sowore meted to the Minister of Communications some weeks ago? My mother, a trader, who was an early collector of the PVC, failed to grasp the essence of Sowere however I explained. For her, as to majority of those that would vote next year, to vote for Sowore and other outsiders is to waste their votes and time since they know the likely outcome of the election beforehand!

In conclusion, social media is a veritable means of upsetting the political balance as have been seen across the western countries as it could be utilized as a galvanizing channel and a means to rouse the teeming young population to political consciousness. But it is still important the rush of extraordinary ideas on the social media are transformed to offline political participations. This has always not been the case with Nigeria. Topical issues trend for a while and end as new topics trend. Yet, fact is, social media distracts and is always influx due to the flurry of topics that come on via clicks on the smartphones and other various smart means. This is especially responsible for the almost null sustained engagement of topical issues. So while the youths expend their energies into trendy topics, the Presidency keeps channeling its energy towards the real voters but still feeds the distractions of the know-it-all youths with new topics for trend. Who wins?

Idowu can be reached via [email protected]; Twitter: @tobiOidowu